The Dark Knight Rises

Following up one of the most critically and commercially successful sequels of all time is no mean feat. The Dark Knight remains a crime drama with scale and pathos to spare, and holds the distinctive merit of being the first super-hero flick for adults that scored just as big at the Academy Awards as it did at the box office. The inevitable consequence is that Nolan has now set expectations so high for The Dark Knight Rises, that they are unlikely to be matched.

This is a shame, because while TDKR admittedly never lives up to its Oscar-baiting predecessor, it is certainly not due to a lack of commitment or ambition from its talented director. In fact, it may be one of the best threequels ever made.

Setting the plot eight years after Batman’s last appearance is a narrative stroke of genius. We now see a greying, frailer Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) who spends his days as a creepy recluse (and thus making similarities to Frank Miller’s highly acclaimed The Dark Knight Returns all the more pleasing). This is no longer a masked vigilante battling thugs and psychopaths – the biggest struggle is against his forced retirement. This is just one of Nolan’s many neat touches that have managed to ground Batman in reality and made him an infinitely more relatable (and commercially reliable) character than Superman or Green Lantern.

But then again, people are not paying to see a three hour film of Bats sorting out his pension fund. So it’s not long before he is called into action by the film’s ‘big bads’: the slinky cat burglar Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway), and the colossal masked terrorist known as Bane (Tom Hardy). Hathaway, whose look has been subjected to online abuse for a distinct lack of feline features, manages to shut all the fanboys up with a disarming performance that is true to the character from the comics and – in true Catwoman style – shamelessly steals the first half of the movie.

Bane is the tougher assignment. Tom Hardy definitely has the required presence and hulking physique to pull off the role, but his job is made harder by having to act behind a mask that covers most of his face, and is marred by a voice that makes him sound like a Jamaican Sean Connery with asthma issues. However, his brutal role in Batman’s undoing – and those familiar with the Knightfall storyline from the comics know exactly what’s coming – make him a villain who is much easier to boo and hiss at than the Joker or Two-Face.

But characters are only as good as the context into which they are inserted, and it is quite admirable how far Nolan has always been willing to push them, especially his protagonist. Not many summer blockbusters get to tread such pitch black waters, especially when so many parallels with real world issues are drawn in the process – terrorism, economic inequality and the ‘occupy movement’ being firmly referenced.

Which makes the idea of a masked superhero swooping in to rectify these wrongs and save the day all the more relishing, if you think about it. Nolan has confirmed this will be the last we’ll see of his grounded, quasi-realistic Batman, and his contribution to the comic book movie genre is indelible. Good luck with the reboot, Warner Bros.

4/5